Committee on NGOs

2001 Session

3^rd Meeting (AM)

COMMITTEE ON NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS GRANTS CONSULTATIVE STATUS

TO FOUR ORGANIZATIONS, DEFERS APPLICATIONS OF SIX OTHERS

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) this morning granted consultative status with the Economic and Social Council to four organizations and deferred six NGOs’ applications for such status to a future date, as it considered applications deferred from former sessions.

The Committee granted special consultative status to Women’s Board Educational Cooperation Society, Girls’ Power Initiative, Family Welfare in Brazil Civil Society, and Abdul Momen Khan Memorial Foundation.  It deferred the applications for consultative status of Africa Infrastructures Foundation, Population Reference Bureau, Network of East-West Women, Mountain Women Development Organization, A Woman’s Voice International, and University of Missouri-Kansas City Women’s Council pending answers to members’ questions.

Non-governmental organizations with consultative status are classified under the "general", "special" or "roster" categories.  Those in the general category must be "concerned with most of the activities of the Economic and Social Council and its subsidiary bodies".  The special category concerns those "which have a special competence in, and are concerned specifically with, only a few of the fields of activity covered by the Council".  The roster category relates to NGOs which "can make occasional and useful contributions to the work of the Council or its subsidiary bodies". 

Different privileges and obligations are accorded to each category.  Non-governmental organizations with general status can propose items for the Council agenda, attend and speak at meetings and circulate statements.  Those with special status can attend meetings and circulate statements, while those on the roster can only attend meetings.  Organizations with general and special status must report every four years on their activities in support of the United Nations.

The Committee granted special consultative status to Girls’ Power Initiative, a national organization with the objective of building and increasing the capacity of Nigerian adolescent girls to articulate and critically analyse issues that impact on their health and enjoyment of human rights, among other things.

It also granted special consultative status to the Family Welfare in Brazil Civil Society, a national organization in the defence of sexual and reproductive rights, and to Abdul Momen Khan Memorial Foundation, a national organization seeking to strengthen participatory democracy in Bangladesh.

After a short debate concerning the national or international character of the Women’s Board Educational Cooperation Society, the Committee granted special consultative status to the NGO, which has, as its main purpose, empowering the individual Nigerian woman of any background, race and religion through education and self-reliance.

The application for special status for the Antioch Christian Centre was postponed until later today pending the provisions of more documentation, after its representative answered questions asked by Committee members.  He said his organization was both a church and a legally established NGO working with disadvantaged people together with other associations and churches.  It could contribute its experience of counselling drug abusers, prisoners and disadvantaged people to the Economic and Social Council.  The representative of India suggested that, in light of the organization’s work, roster status would be more appropriate.

The application for special consultative status of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women’s Council for special consultative status was deferred after clarification was sought regarding the organization’s name and its participation in “Hague Appeal for Peace”.  The organization works to advance the status of women through education and information.

The Committee deferred the application for special consultative status of the Africa Infrastructure Foundation, an international organization working to ensure that Africa’s infrastructures are operational and efficient at all times, pending answers to questions regarding its finances.

For the same reason, the Committee deferred the application for special consultative status of the Population Reference Bureau, an international organization that gathers, interprets and disseminates accurate information about population and related issues.  Apart from questions about the organization’s finances, Algeria’s representative asked how the organization could help, as it had stated, population and health programmes in developing countries and how it could empower people “to make up their own mind”.

Also because of financial questions, the Committee deferred the application for special consultative status of Network of East-West Women, an international organization supporting grass-roots women’s organizations in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.

A decision on the application for special consultative status for the Mountain Women Development Organization, a national organization working to eradicate gender discrimination against women in the northern areas of Pakistan, was deferred as there was a question about its correct address.

As the Committee had not received an answer to previously asked questions, it deferred the application of A Woman’s Voice International, an international organization seeking special consultative status.  The organization’s mission is to assist women and female adolescents in breaking the cycle of illiteracy and poverty.

The Committee’s membership consists of 19 countries:  Algeria, Bolivia, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Lebanon, Pakistan,

Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States. 

Other speakers this morning were the representatives of Turkey, Germany, China, Sudan, Russian Federation, France, Cuba, Senegal, Bolivia, United States, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

The Committee on NGOs will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue consideration of applications for consultative status and requests for reclassification deferred from the previous sessions of the Committee.

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